A man recently received word through social media that a Long Islander and his metal detector found his missing class ring, lost on a day at the beach 56 years ago.

Then just Alfred DiStefano remembers vaguely standing on a dock or a pier on Cedar Beach, Long Island Sound, when the ring slipped off and fell into the water.

Receiving it through the mail, the now Dr. Alfred DiStefano was able to look at the highly personalized white gold band and ruby for the first time since gasoline cost $0.35 a gallon.

The story begins when hobbyist David Orlowski was on the beach at low tide with his metal detector. Routinely scanning the beaches of Long Island for years, he’s found many rings in his time.

“They go in the water, shrinks your hands, and off your ring goes,” Orlowski told ABC 7.

Digging down more than a foot at the prompt of a loud ‘ping’ from his detector, Orlowski found the ring which not only bore the name of the school, Fordham University, but also an inscription of a name on the inside of the band.

Orlowski did a few minutes of searching given that he had so many clues as to the ring’s owner, and managed to find the Fordham class of 1969 reunion Facebook group. There, moderator Karen Manning was so impressed with Orlowski’s honesty, she was determined to find the person to whom the jewel belonged.

“He could have just sold it, and made some money on it, but, it restored my faith in humanity,” Manning said.

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For his part, and true to his honest nature that Manning detected, Orlowski admitted it was his wife that urged him to seek out the ring’s owner.

“She says, ‘well, if you lost your ring, wouldn’t you want it returned?’ And so, right. The question, answered,” Orlowski told 7’s Sonia Rincon.

Dr. DiStefano considers it a miracle, and sent a lovely thank-you present to Orlowski via the return address.

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